Business Spanish and the Liberal Arts College: A Successful Transition.

Thompson, Earl

The development of a Spanish for business course at Elmhurst College, a small undergraduate liberal arts college, is described. The course involves advanced conversation and composition focusing entirely on business and emphasizes vocabulary building and the function and composition of business documents. Another goal of the course is to provide participants with a realistic view of how they might use their language skills following graduation, particularly in local Chicago firms. This goal was accomplished through guest lectures and discussions involving business people who use Spanish in their work. It was found that prospects for employment of bilingual personnel were greater in the smaller businesses rather than the large international corporations. Based on the positive response to the course, Spanish for business has been made a permanent offering and similar courses have been developed in French and German. (RW)